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Sand Snapper
Origins and Distribution The Sand Snapper is a bizarre predator found only in the wastes of the Desert of Skulls in western Allansia. Its one reference in canon occurred on a trek to the Lost City of Vatos. - 149, 266, 377 The Sand Snapper's origins are obscure, and although it shares its territory with the Caarth, there is very little to suggest that it is one of their experimental creations, especially since the only thing Snake-like about it is its tail. Description The Sand Snapper is a Reptile-like creature with a head resembling that of a Lizard or Crocodile. Its body is covered in thick brown scales that are impossible to penetrate with a weapon such as a sword. The tail is long and often coils Snake-like in the sand behind the Sand Snapper's body. It is not known how many or what kind of limbs the Sand Snapper has, but it does have two long tough tentacles that shoot out of the main body (from the general vicinity of the forelimbs) by pushing apart the scales. The structure of these tentacles is unlike anything else on Titan. They are segmented and end in weird-looking four-fingered "hands". Each "finger" has three or four sucker-like pads to better grip prey with. - 377 Special Abilities The Sand Snapper will lie waiting beneath the surface of a dune for potential prey. When a victim approaches, the Sand Snapper will bite it with its huge mouth, which immediately does 4 stamina points and 1 skill point of damage. - 266 If this fails to subdue the prey, the two tentacles will erupt out of the Sand Snapper's body and attempt to grab the prey and pull it further into the Sand Snapper's mouth. The victim must fight both tentacles (each skill 7 stamina 7) at the same time. If either of the two tentacles wins two consecutive Attack Rounds, then: - 149}} If however, the victim manages to cut off both the tentacles (by reducing both tentacles' stamina scores to zero), they have severed the two main nerves of the Sand Snapper, which causes the hideous maw to fall open, releasing the victim, who can then escape. As the Sand Snapper itself is still alive though, presumably it has the ability to regenerate these tentacles and the nerves they contain. It is unknown how long it takes for the Sand Snapper to regenerate in this fashion. Further Notes *If we ignore Bill Houston's picture of the Sand Snapper, and just concentrate on the text description, it would seem that the Sand Snapper is actually influenced by the Sarlacc, from Return of the Jedi. This text description also makes it sound similar to the Chthonian Trapper from northern Allansia, - 341 but the illustrations for both creatures clearly show that they are very different beasts. *In fact, the Sand Snapper is not the only Sarlacc-influenced creature in Titan-based canon. Others include the Earth Demon of the Twin Sun Desert from The Dervish Stone, and the Sand Squid from The Dark Chronicles of Anakendis. *The Sand Snapper is one of those very rare creatures that turns up in one of the early Allansia-based books, but fails to make it into Out of the Pit. *The Sand Snapper likely exists in competition with other specialised carnivorous Reptilian monsters such as the Gretch and Rasaur. See Also References Category:Reptiles